Some people should just pause and reflect before they tweet
A tweet was forwarded to me by multiple sources from the CEO of Football Queensland, Robert Cavallucci, last week. It came after the ABC issued a tweet with a 30-second promotional video of their 4 Corners program broadcast on September 27th.
The promo video included only four people: Nick McGeehan, an international human rights activist; Nick Harris, the chief football writer with the Mail on Sunday; Greg Griffin, former co-owner of Adelaide United in the A-League and now Chairman of Adelaide City; and me.
Cavallucci's tweet, which was in response to one from the Sydney Morning Herald's Vince Rugari opining that the program contained nothing new for the omniscient football fan, said:
“Just the same old people trashing football.”
Considering Cavallucci does not know McGeehan or Harris, and is unlikely to know Adelaide-based Griffin, it would appear he was referring to me.
It was amusing because it's a great case study in why you should really know what you're talking about before you talk about it. Let's consider what I said.
Melbourne City
“One of the reasons [for the City Football Group being in Australia] would be around identifying young talent, both men and women. Because they have a network of clubs around the world, in which they can move those players, it allows them to identify young players, move them to other clubs, and further their development as well as realise some commercial gain.”
Trashing Football?
David Traktovenko
“David Traktovenko got involved in buying Sydney FC because he has a daughter who lives in Sydney. She’s married to an Australian. He has Australian grandchildren. And he already had an interest in football, so when Sydney FC was being formed, and there was an opportunity to invest in it, he did so. It’s fair to say that, since he has been the majority shareholder of Sydney FC, Sydney FC has lived up to its big-name brand reputation as being one of the biggest and best clubs in Australia. They’ve invested in facilities and infrastructure and they’ve had enormous success on and off the field.”
Trashing Football?
The Bakries
“They [FA] should certainly be aware of it. They should be concerned about it.”
Trashing Football?
Don't ask, don't tell
“There’s been zero media scrutiny of the involvement of most of the people involved in our game and I think that’s the way they like it. If people don’t ask questions, they don’t need to give answers. It’s as simple as that.”
(I've written about foreign and Australian owners previously. See some of the articles referenced below).
Trashing Football?
New A-League model
“The new model is that the A-League clubs have management and operational control over their competition. They can make decisions about their competition, which of course, impacts the level of their investment and how they go about doing their business. The FA continues to have what is called a ‘good-of-game’ controlling interest, and importantly they have, and maintain the stewardship of, community football, national teams, player development and those sorts of things.”
Trashing Football?
Transparency and Accountability
“I think generally speaking in football around the world there is a greater need for transparency and accountability.”
“We don’t have the same level of insight into the ownership of the clubs that they do in other countries. It’s a basic tenet of good governance that we have some transparency and accountability around ownership, both foreign-owned and Australian-owned.”
“They’re private entities operating in a sport, and we demand a level of transparency and accountability from sport because it is something that we all engage with.”
“We should be aware of who are the owners, how are they financed, how are they structured, why they are here, and what they’re getting out of it.”
“It matters because in sport, as in life, transparency and accountability matter. So therefore, if we hold those things to be important, they’re important in sport.”
“I think it goes without saying that there needs to be good governance in football, and key to that is transparency and accountability. But that applies whether it’s a foreign owned club or an Australian owned club.”
“So the questions we really need to ask are: is there sufficient due diligence? Is there sufficient transparency and accountability around any club that’s coming into the A-League?”
Trashing Football?
Always good to know what you're talking about
None of the above “trashes football”. What I did, and what I was asked to do, with the 4 Corners interview is provide factual and contextual information and speak about the need for greater transparency and accountability in the game.
I have long attempted to shine a light on what needs to be better in football and contributed ideas, energy, advocacy and hard work to helping to improve it, all for the love of the game. Indeed, one A-League Chairman wrote of the 4 Corners program to me: “I love that you care so much about the game.”
It is a pity for football in Queensland that they have a CEO who appears not only not to value transparency and accountability, but whose first - and perhaps only - line of defence is to “trash” the individual who dares to raise such issues.
Following the program, some people have urged me to sue Cavallucci for defamation because his tweet clearly referred to me and he was clearly wrong. That's not a question of 'inference', as is generally the case in defamation in Australia, but actually dead-set evidence-based wrong.
It was tempting for a nanosecond, but no, that wouldn't be right. That really would be trashing football.